Sigiriya is awesome! Geologically it is the magma plug of anextinct volcano that eroded away (very similar to Devils Tower in Wyoming,USA). But imagine Devils Tower with the ruins of a 1,500 year old fortress ontop, with precariously built walkways and staircases to get up to it, andBuddhist frescoes painted in some of the rock overhangs and you have Sigiriya.There’s actually some dispute over Sigiriya’s age andfunction. The popular view is that it was a hilltop fortress and royal palacecomplex of King Kasspa in the late 400s AD, an unassailable domain he ruledfrom after overthrowing and murdering his father

. Modern archaeologicalanalyses suggest it was actually a monastery complex from the 3rdcentury BC with much of the ruins dating from about the 10th centuryAD.I personally don’t really care what about the historicalreality; Sigiriya is just fantastic – both from afar, on the way up, and fromon top. They just have to do something about that heat! It was alreadypainfully sweaty within the first hour or so after dawn. The approach to thefortress is through the Royal Gardens, a large area to the west of the rockwith moats and ruins. It’s then up through a boulder “garden”, up many stonesteps, to a spiral staircase enclosed in wire along the cliff face that can beclimbed to view the Buddhist mural art in an overhang. It’s then onwards andupwards around the mountain to the Lion’s Paws, carved into the rocks just asthe really steep climb begins

. From there it’s up modern metal stairways thatsnake up and around almost to the top. I tend to be somewhat afraid of heightsbut mostly if I have a sense of falling risk. I was fine on Sigiriya. When you get to the top there are ruins of something thatonce was. You have to use your imagination, though, because what you actuallycan see isn’t all that different from ruins elsewhere in the world – Macchu Picchu,Pompei, Hovenweep, etc. The views in all directions, though, were splendid, andnot only did climbing Sigiriya at dawn capture the coolest daylight hours, italso avoided the mobs of Sri Lankan school children and French touristsclimbing up as we were descending. Despite what some claim, French people donot all not get fat!

On the way south to Kandy in the central highlands we made acouple stops

. One was at a woodworking center where there were plenty ofopportunities to buy the local crafts, much quite nice but also a lot oftourist tack. The second was a tour of a spice plantation, which was quiteinteresting. The spices grown have origins from various parts of the world, butcinnamon is truly from Sri Lanka. Our buffet lunch in the restaurant at thespice farm was an anomaly – one of the few occasions in Sri Lanka where Iexperienced food that was truly flavorful with a heavy dose of local spices –banana flower curry, jackfruit curry, chicken and fish curries that actuallyhad some taste! It’s terrible how what is supposed to be one of the world’sspiciest cuisines is so dumbed down and made insipid for the pathetic tastebudsof westerners. The majority of my fellow travelers, all Brits, hated it!